What does it mean to be a ninja? The ninja, or shinobi, were historically started by peasants in Japan who wished to protect themselves, but were restricted from doing so because only Samurai were allowed to wield the katana. Arming themselves with simple farming tools, the rebel fighters came to rely on their mysteriousness as their primary advantage in their missions. And today, they are worldly recognized as masters of stealth. So too did a young man wish to create a home for the modern day ‘peasant’ wishing to be a part of a world of ninja….
Going by his screen name more often than not, Link created this site one day, not to gain fame, but because it was something worth doing. To create a forum is not in itself a simple task, but much more arduous is the work it takes to make it a success. The Ninja’s Hideout started modestly, within the confines of our school. Spread primarily by word of mouth, it gained a certain population that was initially loyal to it.
Even so, the forum still had some work to go through before it reached where it is today. I remember when the color tone used to speak nothing of the shinobi way, when we didn’t show up on a Google search, when we didn’t have all of our oh so necessary smiley’s, when we didn’t have a video section, and when the number of games in the arcade was less than 100. For all of that credit must be paid where it is due, we all owe Link, ccb, and every other member who gave to the site’s repertoire of tricks a huge thanks.
But features are one thing, to be a forum, we needed people. As I said, our name primarily spread through word of mouth. And on one occasion, by word of post it notes. I remember one day in school, during lunch, Link began the practice of sticking post-it-notes to people as a way of advertising. I myself became incredibly annoyed by this, so I acquired a rather large stack of post it notes my self, and stuck several dozen to Link. However, him being him, he merely passed them on. And so was born the first and only Whatninja.com spam squad. In a single week, we would fill our school with around 500 post-it-notes. And the results showed, our member count finally entered the triple digits. Through our Associates we gained even more members.
Sadly however, many of these were fair-weather members. Some of them made a few posts, even less of them are still active, but most of them just lurked. And in this, we actually lost a fair amount of our loyal members who were with us from the start, nay, from before the start. But, through this rather depressing point of the site’s life, some buds landed in genuinely fertile soil, Link, ccb, Blacknight, akillyz, and everyone else who has stayed with the site, something I cannot say I held myself to, you are about to enter a new, steady momentum that will ultimately bring the site and all who worked so hard to make it what it is today and will be tomorrow into the recognition they deserve. As long as you never forget that you can make it work, ninja will always have a home.
Topic: Editorials (Read 874 times)